Building

ABSTRACT

A building having a steel chassis supported on footings and peripheral metal supports which stand out from the chassis and support the outer peripheral walls of the building so that the ground supporting the footings is shielded from the effects of moisture penetration by the building itself.

United States Patent [191 Sigal [451 Feb. 12, 1974 BUILDING [75]Inventor: Barnet Maxwell Sigal, Wingfield,

South Australia, Australia [73] Assignee: Sigal Industries ProprietaryLimited,

Wingfield, South Australia, Australia 22 Filed: Oct. 1, 1971 211App1.No.: 185,704

[51] Int C 1, EQ4h 9/06, E02d 27/00 [58] Field ofSearch ..248/358;52/731,79,432, 52/433,299, 90, 293

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,750,118 6/1956 Hastings etal. 52/723 1,020,406 3/1912 Flak 248/358 R 1,855,756 4/1932 Garber et al52/731 2,150,898 3/1939 Ackley et a1 52/432 2,154,570 4/1939 Holmstrom52/731 2,205,398 1/1940 Eaton 52/299 2,287,229 l/1942 Carpenter.. 52/792,391,960 1/1946 Gede 52/433 2,439,960 4/1948 Auten 52/293 2,883,7114/1959 Kump 52/79 3,332,646 7/1967 Kellett 248/358 R PrimaryExaminerJohn E. Murtagh Assistant Examiner.lames L. Ridgill, JrAttorney, Agent, or FirmOldham & Oldham 5 7 ABSTRACT A building having asteel chassis-supported on footings and peripheral metal supports whichstand out from the chassis and support the outer peripheral walls of thebuilding so that the ground supporting the footings is shielded from theeffects of moisture penetration by the building itself.

4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures BUILDING This invention relates to abuilding which may be for example, suitable as a dwelling, and may be ofthe socalled brick veneer type.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is desirable that buildings have brickfacings in many instances, both for aesthetic reasons and for sound andheat insulating reasons, and there is a demand for such buildings to beerected on soil which is dimensionally unstable (the so-called Bay ofBiscay soil).

One of the main objects of this invention is to provide an improvedbuilding which can be supported on footings which are themselves notnecessarily dimensionally stable, and yet resist tendency for the brickfacing or veneer of the building to crack.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In this invention, a steel chassis isformed with primary steel bearers, secondary steel bearers and steelfloor supports. The chassis is surrounded by peripheral wall supportssecured to it, and the wall supports in turn support the peripheralwalls, which can be of brick and mortar construction. The loading of thebuilding is taken by footings which support the primary steel bearers.The peripheral wall supports (and therefore the peripheral walls) arespaced outwardly from the footings, so that the building itself shieldsthe groundsupporting the footings against the effects of moisturepenetration.

Such a building can be constructed on longitudinal steel bearersextending beneath and forming portion of the chassis, the longitudinalsteel bearers themselves being carried on footings which are notnecessarily interlocked, but may if desired be arranged to move relativeto one another. However the chassis can be constructed so rigidly thatthe deflection of the side walls is limited to such an extent thatcracking of the mortar or brick courses in the brick veneer issubstantially eliminated.

Since the outer peripheral walls are supported on respective peripheralsupports which are outstanding from the chassis, the footings supportedby the chassis are on ground protected by the building itself, and thismay be at a much more nearly constant moisture content than thesurrounding soil which" may become very wet in winter and very dryinsummer. This can be ensured, for example, by providing a concreteapron surrounding the building and arranged to shed water away from thebuilding. By this means the soil beneath the footings will vary inposition and elevation much less If however the footing soil is likelyto be movable notwithstanding its protection by the building, it isclearly desirable that the friction between the bearers and footingsshould be as small as possible and the invention in one of its formsincludes as a further feature the V interposition of low frictionmembers between the than with previously proposed footings, and conse- Iquently there will be much less relative movement between portions ofthe building.

It will also be clear that the invention when applied can be used forprefabricated buildings, the buildings for example being taken to a siteand being merely positioned on the site, the only on site job requiringattention being the positioning of the brick veneer (or other outersheathing) around the outer walls and supported by the outstanding metalsupports. It will therefore be seen that the invention makes possible aprefabricated building which is useful and economical under mostconditions which are likely to be-encountered, whether the soilsupporting the building is likely to be movable or not.

upper surfaces of the footings and the lower surfaces of the bearers.For example the footings may be composite footings having an upper rodor pipe extending along them, or they may be provided with flat steelplates or non-metallic sheeting.

For transport purposes it is frequently desirable that a prefabricatedbuilding should be in a partially knockdwon form, and the invention inanother of its forms includes as a further feature interlock meansbetween contiguous chassis portions. The interlock means can beconstituted by outstanding tongues on one chassis portion which engagecomplementary recesses in a contiguous chassis portion.

An embodiment of the invention is described hereunder in some detailwith reference to and is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the footings and primary longitudinalsteel bearers,

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic section showing how two portions of a buildingare drawn together on site,

FIG. 3 shows interconnecting means of the chassis of the two portions,

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectioned detail of the roof and wall of thebuilding,

FIG. 5 is a similar detail of the floor and wall, and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary section showing a primary bearer supported on afooting.

FIG. 1 illustrates a series of footings 10 supporting three spacedprimary longitudinal steel bearers 11 secured thereto, the line 12indicating the outer periphery of the building 13. The bearers 1 lsubsequently become portion of a steel chassis. It will be noted fromFIG. lthat all footings are well within the periphery of the building,and therefore are supported on ground which is dimensionally more stablethan the ground outside that periphery, if the soil is of the type whichvaries dimensionally with moisture content.

In this embodiment the building 13 is formed from two portions 15 and 16(FIG. 2) which knock down for transport purposes but are readilyassembled. Each portion is provided with a pair of spaced parallellongitudinal steel bearers 17, in this embodiment being of I-section,the bearers 17 supporting transverse steel floor support members 18which are welded to their upper surface. The two portions are placedface to face on the primary steel bearers 11 and are drawn towards oneanother by means of bolts (not shown) which secure them together. Whenin position outer bearers 17 are welded to bearers 11.

Each floor support member is provided with an upstanding steel stud 20to the inner surface of which is secured an inner lining 21, and theupper ends of the studs terminate in wall plates 24 (FIG. 4) whichsupport a ceiling 25 and roof 26 in known manner.

The chassis comprises the members 11, 17 and 18 in assembly, and threesides of the chassis are provided with peripheral outstanding metalsupports 29. In this embodiment the metal supports each include both anouter vertical plinth and an upper portion of angle section which issecured to the ends of the floor support members 18 as shown in FIG. 5.The oustanding platforms 30 formed by the horizontal portion of theangle section metal supports 29 are of slightly greater dimension thanthe width of bricks, and panels of brick veneer 31 are supported by theplatforms 30. To prevent any possibility of sagging of the outstandingflanges, these are stiffened by angle section support members 32. Thebricks are mortared together and are joined to the upstanding studs bymeans of wire ties 33 secured to the studs 20. The erection of brickstakes place on site. Each brick wall exceeding, say, fifteen feet inlength, is provided with an expansion joint between its ends, theexpansion joint containing mastic. A concrete path 34 forms an apronaround the building which sheds water away from the footings 10.

At the localities of doors and windows it is desirable that the bricksare readily positionable by semi-skilled labour and accordingly thedoors and windows are carefully arranged at right angles to the metalsupports, and the frames terminate in plates the planes of which lie atright angles to the planes of the adjacent brick veneer panels. Thisthen provides simple means for a brick layer to align the vertical edgesof his bricks, and when the panels have been erected a simple trimmoulding is secured to the plates, the trim moulding covering the edgesof the brick work. This not illustrated herein.

While three sides of the chassis are provided with outstanding metalsupports for brick veneer panels, the fourth side is provided with achannel 35 having outstanding flanges, and this is arranged to abut asimilar channel of a similar part chassis of the building also havingoutstanding flanges, but outstanding tongues 36 on one chassis memberengage in the channel of the abutting chassis member, this providingmeans for quickly aligning the knock-down portions of the building afterthe knock-down portions have been positioned adjacent one another on thefootings and as they are drawn in by the bolts as described above.

The footings in this embodiment are simply rectangular slabs of concreteof relatively small dimension, although of sufficient cross-sectionalarea to support the loading of the building. The slabs however arespaced from one another so that they are capable of relative movement tofollow movement of the ground, and the upper surfaces support thelongitudinal steel bearers of the chassis. Slippers 38 of nylon areinterposed between the slabs 10 and the primary bearers 11 to allowrelative movement therebetween, as shown in FIG. 6. Simple bolt clamps39 secure the slabs 10 to the primary bearers 11.

The brick veneer panels are conveniently arranged beneath window sills(which are tiled in the normal manner) and between window frames anddoor frames, but the spacing above the window frames and above the doorframes is filled in with light weight panels, thereby avoiding difficultload transmission means being built into the side walls of the building.

A brief consideration of the above embodiment will indicate that theinvention is very simple, but nevertheless results in a building whichis so inexpensive that it can be utilised in competition with otherknown methods of construction which do not have the same strength.However, the chassis can be made so mechanically strong that it can beused on soil having unstable characteristics, and avoid cracking of thewalls even if one or more of the fittings rises or falls,notwithstanding their shielding from wet conditions.

I claim:

1. A building including a series of spaced apart footings positionedinteriorly of the periphery of the building for supporting the building,each footing having a top planar surface, a plurality of primary spacedapart steel bearers secured to and resting totally on top of the planarsurfaces, the primary steel bearers each being supported on a pluralityof the footings and extending therebeyond toward the building periphery,slippers interposed between the primary bearers and the footings, aplurality of secondary spaced apart steel bearers extending transverselyof and supported by the primary steel bearers, a plurality of spacedapart steel floor supports extending transversely of and supported bysecondary steel bearers, means securing together the primary steelbearers, secondary steel bearers and floor supports, which form an underfloor chassis of steel, peripheral metal supports secured directly tobut outstanding laterally from the chassis, the peripheral metalsupports being spaced outwardly from the footings and including sectionsextending down to ground level so that the building shields the groundsupporting the footings against moisture penetration, and outerperipheral walls supported by said metal supports.

2. The building as recited in claim 1 which further includes clampssecuring the primary bearers to the footings, and wherein saidperipheral metal supports are sheet or plate formed to extend outwardlyand downwardly from the chassis so as to terminate at a point below theprimary steel bearers, and wherein weld means are provided to secure theperipheral metal supports to the chassis, each support including acantilevered platform portion for supporting outer peripheral walls ofthe building, and wherein said sections are a flange portion dependingfrom the platform portion.

3. A building according to claim 1 wherein said outer peripheral wallsare panels formed of bricks joined together with mortar to therebyconstitute a brick veneer for the building supported on said platformportions, and further comprising an apron surrounding the building andimmediately adjacent the sections, the apron being supported on soiladjacent the building, the apron having a sloping upper surface andbeing so arranged as to shed water away from said building.

4. A building according to claim 1 wherein said chassis comprises twoportions each of which is a subassembly, locating tongues on one portionengaging a channel on the other portion, and means securing the portionstogether.

1. A building including a series of spaced apart footings positioned interiorly of the periphery of the building for supporting the building, each footing having a top planar surface, a plurality of primary spaced apart steel bearers secured to and resting totally on top of the planar surfaces, the primary steel bearers each being supported on a plurality of the footings and extending therebeyond toward the building periphery, slippers interposed between the primary bearers and the footings, a plurality of secondary spaced apart steel bearers extending transversely of and supported by the primary steel bearers, a plurality of spaced apart steel floor supports extending transversely of and supported by secondary steel bEarers, means securing together the primary steel bearers, secondary steel bearers and floor supports, which form an under floor chassis of steel, peripheral metal supports secured directly to but outstanding laterally from the chassis, the peripheral metal supports being spaced outwardly from the footings and including sections extending down to ground level so that the building shields the ground supporting the footings against moisture penetration, and outer peripheral walls supported by said metal supports.
 2. The building as recited in claim 1 which further includes clamps securing the primary bearers to the footings, and wherein said peripheral metal supports are sheet or plate formed to extend outwardly and downwardly from the chassis so as to terminate at a point below the primary steel bearers, and wherein weld means are provided to secure the peripheral metal supports to the chassis, each support including a cantilevered platform portion for supporting outer peripheral walls of the building, and wherein said sections are a flange portion depending from the platform portion.
 3. A building according to claim 1 wherein said outer peripheral walls are panels formed of bricks joined together with mortar to thereby constitute a brick veneer for the building supported on said platform portions, and further comprising an apron surrounding the building and immediately adjacent the sections, the apron being supported on soil adjacent the building, the apron having a sloping upper surface and being so arranged as to shed water away from said building.
 4. A building according to claim 1 wherein said chassis comprises two portions each of which is a sub-assembly, locating tongues on one portion engaging a channel on the other portion, and means securing the portions together. 